Plot
# 893 is situated in a residential area of East Beirut, with a plot surface of
1054 square meters and an allowable built-up area of approximately 4100 square
meters. The residential project runs parallel to Montée Barakat, an old public
stairway linking Achrafieh Street to its adjacent southern neighborhood.

As
part of a series of projects we have developed that attempt to move away from
the often imposed typical developer’s typology consisting of deep floor slabs,
this proposed scheme is one that is stretched along its depth, resulting in
shallow and elongated plans embracing an inner garden.

With
a relatively modest length of 14 meters running along the northern
street-facing façade, the building is aligned flush with the western blind
parti wall, stretching the plan along the 55 meters depth of the plot, thus
rendering the slabs of the apartments shallow along the eastern-western axis allowing
for generous natural light and maximizing the residences’ exposure to a rare
feature in such a dense urban context: an internal 650-square-meter garden on
the eastern side.

The
scheme generates longitudinal balconies which wrap around the glazed periphery
of the dwellings, out of which double-height reception areas protrude as
organic pavilion-like structures overlooking the garden, further exposing them
to the exterior, providing cross-ventilation and maximizing their natural light
gain. The serpentine terraces that define the eastern edge of the plan allow
for one to make their way from any room in the house to another solely from the
exterior, giving rise to an alternative outdoor circuit allowing the building to
integrate itself into its surrounding by embracing its garden and the void
above it.